Mina Harker's Journal

Dr. Van Helsing described what steps were
taken during the day to discover on what boat and whither bound Count Dracula
made his escape.

"As I knew that he wanted to get back to Transylvania,
I felt sure that he must go by the Danube mouth, or by somewhere in the Black
Sea, since by that way he come. It was a dreary blank that was before us. Omme
ignotum pro magnifico, and so with heavy hearts we start to find what ships leave
for the Black Sea last night. He was in sailing ship, since Madam Mina tell of
sails being set. These not so important as to go in your list of the shipping
in the Times, and so we go, by suggestion of Lord Godalming, to your Lloyd's,
where are note of all ships that sail, however so small. There we find that only
one Black Sea bound ship go out with the tide. She is the Czarina Catherine, and
she sail from Doolittle's Wharf for Varna, and thence to other ports and up the
Danube. 'So!' said I, 'this is the ship whereon is the Count.' So off we go to
Doolittle's Wharf, and there we find a man in an office. From him we inquire of
the goings of the Czarina Catherine. He swear much, and he red face and loud of
voice, but he good fellow all the same. And when Quincey give him something from
his pocket which crackle as he roll it up, and put it in a so small bag which
he have hid deep in his clothing, he still better fellow and humble servant to
us. He come with us, and ask many men who are rough and hot. These be better fellows
too when they have been no more thirsty. They say much of blood and bloom, and
of others which I comprehend not, though I guess what they mean. But nevertheless
they tell us all things which we want to know.

"They make known to
us among them, how last afternoon at about five o'clock comes a man so hurry.
A tall man, thin and pale, with high nose and teeth so white, and eyes that seem
to be burning. That he be all in black, except that he have a hat of straw which
suit not him or the time. That he scatter his money in making quick inquiry as
to what ship sails for the Black Sea and for where. Some took him to the office
and then to the ship, where he will not go aboard but halt at shore end of gangplank,
and ask that the captain come to him. The captain come, when told that he will
be pay well, and though he swear much at the first he agree to term. Then the
thin man go and some one tell him where horse and cart can be hired. He go there
and soon he come again, himself driving cart on which a great box. This he himself
lift down, though it take several to put it on truck for the ship. He give much
talk to captain as to how and where his box is to be place. But the captain like
it not and swear at him in many tongues, and tell him that if he like he can come
and see where it shall be. But he say 'no,' that he come not yet, for that he
have much to do. Whereupon the captain tell him that he had better be quick, with
blood, for that his ship will leave the place, of blood, before the turn of the
tide, with blood. Then the thin man smile and say that of course he must go when
he think fit, but he will be surprise if he go quite so soon. The captain swear
again, polyglot, and the thin man make him bow, and thank him, and say that he
will so far intrude on his kindness as to come aboard before the sailing. Final
the captain, more red than ever, and in more tongues, tell him that he doesn't
want no Frenchmen, with bloom upon them and also with blood, in his ship, with
blood on her also. And so, after asking where he might purchase ship forms, he
departed.

"No one knew where he went 'or bloomin' well cared' as they
said, for they had something else to think of, well with blood again. For it soon
became apparent to all that the Czarina Catherine would not sail as was expected.
A thin mist began to creep up from the river, and it grew, and grew. Till soon
a dense fog enveloped the ship and all around her. The captain swore polyglot,
very polyglot, polyglot with bloom and blood, but he could do nothing. The water
rose and rose, and he began to fear that he would lose the tide altogether. He
was in no friendly mood, when just at full tide, the thin man came up the gangplank
again and asked to see where his box had been stowed. Then the captain replied
that he wished that he and his box, old and with much bloom and blood, were in
hell. But the thin man did not be offend, and went down with the mate and saw
where it was place, and came up and stood awhile on deck in fog. He must have
come off by himself, for none notice him. Indeed they thought not of him, for
soon the fog begin to melt away, and all was clear again. My friends of the thirst
and the language that was of bloom and blood laughed, as they told how the captain's
swears exceeded even his usual polyglot, and was more than ever full of picturesque,
when on questioning other mariners who were on movement up and down the river
that hour, he found that few of them had seen any of fog at all, except where
it lay round the wharf. However, the ship went out on the ebb tide, and was doubtless
by morning far down the river mouth. She was then, when they told us, well out
to sea.

"And so, my dear Madam Mina, it is that we have to rest for
a time, for our enemy is on the sea, with the fog at his command, on his way to
the Danube mouth. To sail a ship takes time, go she never so quick. And when we
start to go on land more quick, and we meet him there. Our best hope is to come
on him when in the box between sunrise and sunset. For then he can make no struggle,
and we may deal with him as we should. There are days for us, in which we can
make ready our plan. We know all about where he go. For we have seen the owner
of the ship, who have shown us invoices and all papers that can be. The box we
seek is to be landed in Varna, and to be given to an agent, one Ristics who will
there present his credentials. And so our merchant friend will have done his part.
When he ask if there be any wrong, for that so, he can telegraph and have inquiry
made at Varna, we say 'no,' for what is to be done is not for police or of the
customs. It must be done by us alone and in our own way."

When Dr.
Van Helsing had done speaking, I asked him if he were certain that the Count had
remained on board the ship. He replied, "We have the best proof of that,
your own evidence, when in the hypnotic trance this morning."

I asked
him again if it were really necessary that they should pursue the Count, for oh!
I dread Jonathan leaving me, and I know that he would surely go if the others
went. He answered in growing passion, at first quietly. As he went on, however,
he grew more angry and more forceful, till in the end we could not but see wherein
was at least some of that personal dominance which made him so long a master amongst
men.

"Yes, it is necessary, necessary, necessary! For your sake in
the first, and then for the sake of humanity. This monster has done much harm
already, in the narrow scope where he find himself, and in the short time when
as yet he was only as a body groping his so small measure in darkness and not
knowing. All this have I told these others. You, my dear Madam Mina, will learn
it in the phonograph of my friend John, or in that of your husband. I have told
them how the measure of leaving his own barren land, barren of peoples, and coming
to a new land where life of man teems till they are like the multitude of standing
corn, was the work of centuries. Were another of the Undead, like him, to try
to do what he has done, perhaps not all the centuries of the world that have been,
or that will be, could aid him. With this one, all the forces of nature that are
occult and deep and strong must have worked together in some wonderous way. The
very place, where he have been alive, Undead for all these centuries, is full
of strangeness of the geologic and chemical world. There are deep caverns and
fissures that reach none know whither. There have been volcanoes, some of whose
openings still send out waters of strange properties, and gases that kill or make
to vivify. Doubtless, there is something magnetic or electric in some of these
combinations of occult forces which work for physical life in strange way, and
in himself were from the first some great qualities. In a hard and warlike time
he was celebrate that he have more iron nerve, more subtle brain, more braver
heart, than any man. In him some vital principle have in strange way found their
utmost. And as his body keep strong and grow and thrive, so his brain grow too.
All this without that diabolic aid which is surely to him. For it have to yield
to the powers that come from, and are, symbolic of good. And now this is what
he is to us. He have infect you, oh forgive me, my dear, that I must say such,
but it is for good of you that I speak. He infect you in such wise, that even
if he do no more, you have only to live, to live in your own old, sweet way, and
so in time, death, which is of man's common lot and with God's sanction, shall
make you like to him. This must not be! We have sworn together that it must not.
Thus are we ministers of God's own wish. That the world, and men for whom His
Son die, will not be given over to monsters, whose very existence would defame
Him. He have allowed us to redeem one soul already, and we go out as the old knights
of the Cross to redeem more. Like them we shall travel towards the sunrise. And
like them, if we fall, we fall in good cause."

He paused and I said,
"But will not the Count take his rebuff wisely? Since he has been driven
from England, will he not avoid it, as a tiger does the village from which he
has been hunted?"

"Aha!" he said, "your simile of the
tiger good, for me, and I shall adopt him. Your maneater, as they of India call
the tiger who has once tasted blood of the human, care no more for the other prey,
but prowl unceasing till he get him. This that we hunt from our village is a tiger,
too, a maneater, and he never cease to prowl. Nay, in himself he is not one to
retire and stay afar. In his life, his living life, he go over the Turkey frontier
and attack his enemy on his own ground. He be beaten back, but did he stay? No!
He come again, and again, and again. Look at his persistence and endurance. With
the child-brain that was to him he have long since conceive the idea of coming
to a great city. What does he do? He find out the place of all the world most
of promise for him. Then he deliberately set himself down to prepare for the task.
He find in patience just how is his strength, and what are his powers. He study
new tongues. He learn new social life, new environment of old ways, the politics,
the law, the finance, the science, the habit of a new land and a new people who
have come to be since he was. His glimpse that he have had, whet his appetite
only and enkeen his desire. Nay, it help him to grow as to his brain. For it all
prove to him how right he was at the first in his surmises. He have done this
alone, all alone! From a ruin tomb in a forgotten land. What more may he not do
when the greater world of thought is open to him. He that can smile at death,
as we know him. Who can flourish in the midst of diseases that kill off whole
peoples. Oh! If such an one was to come from God, and not the Devil, what a force
for good might he not be in this old world of ours. But we are pledged to set
the world free. Our toil must be in silence, and our efforts all in secret. For
in this enlightened age, when men believe not even what they see, the doubting
of wise men would be his greatest strength. It would be at once his sheath and
his armor, and his weapons to destroy us, his enemies, who are willing to peril
even our own souls for the safety of one we love. For the good of mankind, and
for the honour and glory of God."

After a general discussion it was
determined that for tonight nothing be definitely settled. That we should all
sleep on the facts, and try to think out the proper conclusions. Tomorrow, at
breakfast, we are to meet again, and after making our conclusions known to one
another, we shall decide on some definite cause of action . . .

I feel a
wonderful peace and rest tonight. It is as if some haunting presence were removed
from me. Perhaps . . .

My surmise was not finished, could not be, for I
caught sight in the mirror of the red mark upon my forehead, and I knew that I
was still unclean.